State Attorney Drops Charge In Man's Slaying

TAVARES — The state attorney's office has dropped a first-degree murder charge against a 20-year-old Mascotte woman who was accused last month of stabbing her uncle and leaving him to bleed to death.

The charge was dropped against Sheresa Tarnell Robinson because a man claiming to be a witness in the case has not proved to be reliable, Assistant State Attorney Anthony Tatti said Monday.

''He changed his testimony when I talked with him,'' Tatti said.

Robinson, however, remains in the Marion County Jail where she has been held without bond since March 4 on an aggravated battery charge. Lake County's female prisoners are being held in Marion County because of crowded jail conditions in Lake.

Assistant Public Defender Carla Pepperman said Monday she plans to file a motion - perhaps today - for bail to be set.

Robinson was charged with killing Fred Lovette, a 47-year-old migrant worker. Lovette was found dead March 4 in his Taylor Street home in Stuckey, a small community about a mile west of Mascotte.

Robinson, who lived with Lovette, has been held without bail since Lovett's body was found by a relative.

An autopsy showed Lovette bled to death because a major artery in his throat was severed when he was stabbed in the back of the neck.

A man unrelated to Robinson and Lovette originally told Lake County sheriff's investigators he was present when the incident occurred, Tatti said. ''Based on the information they got from him, we had more than enough probable cause to arrest and charge her.''

However, Tatti said when the man talked with him, ''he changed his story.''

The man is considered a suspect in the case, said Tatti, who declined to comment on whether he would be charged with perjury.

According to arrest records, Robinson and Lovette had been fighting the night of March 3. Another of Lovette's nieces, Angela Burks, 26, of Clermont, came to visit and found Lovette fighting with Robinson over money and alcohol. Bottles were being thrown and Lovette had a bad cut on his head, Burks said.

Later that night, Lovette was treated and released at South Lake Memorial Hospital.

Burks said she returned to her uncle's home about 7 a.m. on March 4. He was still drinking, she said, and arguing with a man and woman she didn't know. Burks said she left for about 30 minutes and found Lovette dead when she returned.

Sheriff's investigators jailed Robinson later that day on a charge of aggravated battery after she said she hit her uncle on the head with a liquor bottle the night before. The murder charge was filed March 16.

Last week, Robinson filed her own motion to dismiss evidence used to arrest her on the aggravated battery charge. The motion does not list the specific evidence.